Though commonly spoken of as one of the "Penal Laws", and enumerated by Butler in his Historical Account of the Laws against the
Roman Catholics of England, it was not directly aimed against them, but against the
Presbyterians. It was passed in December 1661, the year after the Restoration, by
Charles II. The
Cavalier Parliament aimed at restoring England to its state before the time of the
Commonwealth. It required all the prudence of the
Earl of Clarendon, the chancellor, to restrain them. The Corporation Act represents the limit to which he was prepared to go in endeavouring to restrict the power of the Presbyterians. They were influentially represented in the government of cities and boroughs throughout the country, and this act was designed to dispossess them.

In default of these requisites the election was to be void. A somewhat similar act passed twelve years later, known as the
Test Act, prescribed for all officers, civil and military, further stringent conditions, including a declaration against
transubstantiation.

These two acts operated very prejudicially on Catholics, forming an important part of the general
Penal laws which kept them out of public life. In later times the number, even of non-Catholics, who qualified for civil and military posts in accordance with their provisions was very small, and an "
Act of Indemnity" used to be passed annually, to relieve those who had not done so from the penalties incurred. There was no expression in this act limiting its operation to the case of Protestants; yet on the only occasion when a Catholic ventured to ask for a share in the Indemnity, it was refused on the ground of the act not being applicable to him. (Butler, op. cit., 19.)